Brother
by Erymanthos
Summary: One-shot If not a wife, then a brother...


So that was it.

Ten years. Ten years of watching her, of loving her from afar, of adoring the very footsteps she left behind her, but never being able to approach her, to make himself known to her, ever again.

_You have no power over me._

Such simple words had proved, for him, for his desired love life, to be so horribly fatal. It was as if Sarah had set a barrier around herself, a shield penetrable by anyone except for the Goblin King himself.

She could not see him if he was standing in front of her, or sitting in the desk next to her in high school, then college and graduate school, or lying on the bed beside her at night, listening to her breathing, quiet and slow as she drifted off to sleep.

She could not hear him whispering good morning in her ear as she brushed her teeth in the bathroom. She could not hear him calling goodbye as she drove off to her job. She could not hear him, every so often, raging at her furiously, desperately, as she continued to live life unaware of his presence.

She could not feel him touch his strong fingers to her pale ones, or wrap his arms around her slender yet soft body and bury his face in her flowing brown hair, smelling of that floral shampoo she washed it with.

So had passed seven years of Sarah's bachelorette-hood. His heart had dreamed impossible dreams consisting of fairy-tale endings of the sort that the young woman told her little brother every night before he was put to bed.

Then there had been three years of dating, of Sarah being attached to her "Doug." His heart had ached with an overwhelming desire to be _seen,_ to be _heard_ just _once._ Just once, he found himself begging again and again as he looked on while Sarah and Doug cuddled together on the sofa in the living room, watching a rented movie. Though he did not know exactly who he was beseeching… and it did not matter in the end.

For now was the day. The day he had been dreading for over eight months now.

The day that Miss Sarah Williams would become Mrs. Douglas Jennings.

"Jareth?"

He blinked, looked down into the face of the pale-haired boy who was sitting beside him. "Yes, Toby?"

The ten-year-old sighed, rolling his eyes as he complained, "I've been saying your name for like _ever_ now."

"I'm sorry, Toby." Jareth shook his head, gazed almost dazedly around the small, automotive-wallpapered room that Toby called his own. "I just… I have a lot on my mind right now."

"I know." Toby suddenly grew solemn. "My sister's getting married, and it isn't to you."

Jareth could not hate Toby for this; the boy meant no harm, he was simply stating the facts. Toby had always been a straight-forward boy, and this was only one reason why Jareth was fond of him.

For some reason, unknown even to himself, Jareth had been the boy's guardian since the night Sarah had raced upstairs to check that her baby brother was indeed safe in his crib, as he should have been after the Goblin King's defeat. Jareth had been the one spinning his own fairy-tales for Toby after his sister left the room at night. From the age of one until the age of ten, they were stories never repeated unless asked for, stories that the boy never tired of hearing. Stories that had gradually lent their true meaning to the boy as he grew in age and wisdom, as he learned to grasp the sorrowful undertone of impossibility running throughout each and every one.

"You like Sarah, don't you, Jareth," Toby had spoken up after one such story, when he was seven. It was not a question, and Jareth could do nothing but nod.

"Then why don't you tell her? I think she'd like you, too."

Then the truth of the Labyrinth, of Jareth's defeat and banishment from Sarah's life, had come out. Toby's eyes had widened further and further into the telling of his sister wishing him away, of his time in the castle being bounced on Jareth's knee, of his sister at last breaking all ties that might connect her to the Goblin King.

"Sarah never told me about that."

"I expect she is somewhat ashamed. She almost lost you, you know."

Silence. Then: "But you would've taken care of me, right?"

The unwavering trust in the young boy's eyes, those eyes that so resembled those of a certain young woman, had jolted something in Jareth's heart. He had enfolded the boy within the embrace of one arm, lowered his wild-tressed head to the smaller, clean-cut one.

"Yes. I would have."

"Jareth!"

"Sorry, Toby."

"You were gone again." Though the boy was reproachful at being ignored, only a few seconds passed before he forgave the Goblin King with a look and wriggled his foot. "Are you almost done?"

Jareth bent his head and finished tying a double-bow with the laces of Toby's black dress shoe. "There."

Toby hopped off his bed and went to the bedroom door, obviously being careful not to muss his combed hair or the small black tuxedo he wore. He was halfway down the hall before he realized that something someone was missing. Turning back to face his room, he hissed so that nobody else would hear: "Jareth, come on!"

Jareth hesitated, then shook his head slowly. "I'm sorry, Toby. I… think I'll sit this one out."

Toby's face fell. "But "

"I'll see you later, Toby."

It was the first time he had ever lied to the boy. And Toby knew it, too.

One moment he was standing there in the hallway, his expression stricken. Then he was holding onto Jareth's arm like a life-line, tears threatening to leak from his eyes.

"Jareth? Jareth, you're not going to leave, are you?"

Before the Goblin King could think of a reply, Toby was burying his face in the rich fabric of the ruler's coat. "Don't go, Jareth!" He choked out. "Don't leave me!"

Jareth put a hand on Toby's head. "It's been ten years, Toby," he told the boy quietly. "And now she's getting married. I've always loved her, but now… I have to face the truth. She's never going to see me. She's never going to love me back."

"But you're my brother." The boy's voice was muffled due to his face still being pressed into Jareth's arm. "You have me. You're like my brother. Don't _go._ You said you'd take care of me!"

The Goblin King's mismatched eyes widened. He cared for the boy, he could never deny that. But he had not thought that Toby would be this devastated by the possibility of separation.

…_crying hard as babes could cry… What could I do? _

Words rose to his mind unbidden, almost forgotten, but still so fitting for the situation.

_My baby's love had gone and left my baby blue… Nobody knew…_

There would be no one else who understood Toby like Jareth did, who would watch over the boy as Jareth had all these years. The Goblin King had remained concealed from all but Toby, and now…

He loved Sarah. He wanted her to love him back, to somehow know he was there. But he had grown to love Toby as well. Toby, who had called him brother.

If not a wife, then a brother…

Jareth felt something strange on his cheek. He reached up, touched it, drew his finger away and looked.

It was a tear. He could not help grinning, letting out a strangled laugh.

"Don't cry, Toby. I'm staying. I'm staying with you."


End file.
